Research

Research Statement

I have, besides finishing my BA in philosophy, acted as scientific assistant to Prof. Vincent F. Hendricks (University of Copenhagen). My work has specifically consisted in data collection and hypothesis generation pertaining to studies of various information phenomena, such as information cascades and echo chambers, in online communities. These studies are central elements in Prof. Hendricks’ broader studies of multi-agent information processing of relevance to deliberative democracy.

In two case studies of information structures in social media, we investigated how opinions are presented, framed and used in online discussions. Here, we attempted to map cross-blog discussions of how users’ opinions where influenced by the ongoing discussion; how such open fora may lead to belief polarization and opinion migration, and how such heated echo chambers may be stalled by a new truth-ful information.

Through this work and my interaction with Hendricks and colleagues, I have gained a strong interest in their general line of research, have witnessed how formal methods may be used to analyze and model various informational phenomena, and how such tools allow for strict structural explications. I find these aspects highly intriguing, and would like to actively participate in the modeling process in the future. The tools utilized by Hendricks et al. in their research is of wide variety, including epistemic and temporal logics, game theory, formal learning theory and social network analysis.